1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a lamp structures and, more particularly, to a lamp structure with an opencell housing that can provide a light ring in the outside peripheral rim thereof. The lamp structure of the present invention is applicable to car lamps, home lamps, commercial lamps, military lamps, agricultural lamps, as well as industrial lamps for illumination, decoration, or warning purpose.
2. Description of Related Art
A conventional headlamp assembly 9, as shown in FIG. 8, comprises a headlamp housing 91 and a light guide ring 92 located on the rim of the housing 91. As illustrated in FIG. 9, the light guide ring 92 has a plurality of notches 921 spaced around the periphery. When light rays passed through the fiber optic 922 into the distributor 923, the reflectors 924 and 925 reflect light rays into the inside of the light guide ring 92, enabling light rays to pass out of the light guide ring 92 through two opposite sloping faces of each notch 921. Because the notches 921 are arranged in a circle, a light-ring is produced when light rays passed through the notches 921. In order to produce such a light-ring around the rim of the housing 91, the light guide ring 92 and the fiber optic 922 or other light emitting means must be additionally added to the housing 91. This structure of headlamp assembly 9 is too complicated. The installation cost of the fiber optic 922 is extremely high. Furthermore, the lighting mode of this structure of headlamp assembly 9 is only ON or OFF which is monotonous. Because the light admitting part of the light guide ring 92 is limited to the area of the un-continuous notches 921, the lighting mode is monotonous, and the intensity of light passing through the notches 921 is weak.
Therefore, it is desirable to provide a lamp structure that eliminates the aforesaid drawbacks.
The present invention has been accomplished under the circumstances in view. It is the main object of the present invention is to provide a lamp structure, which is easy and inexpensive to manufacture. It is another object of the present invention to provide a lamp structure, which is flexible and practical for use in a variety of lamp applications.
To achieve these and other objects of the present invention, the lamp structure comprises a housing, a first mirror layer, a second mirror layer, and at least one first light source. The housing is a transparent opencell housing with a predetermined wall thickness. The housing comprises a first surface and a second surface at two sides of the predetermined wall thickness, a light admitting face formed in an outside peripheral wall of the housing and neighboring the first surface and the second surface, and at least one first lamp socket integral with the housing. The first mirror layer is coated on the first surface. The second mirror layer is coated on the second surface. The at least one first light source is respectively installed in the at least one first lamp socket and corresponding to the predetermined wall thickness, for emitting light into the predetermined wall thickness and enabling light rays mutually reflected between the first mirror layer and the second mirror layer and guided toward the light admitting face on the outside peripheral wall of the transparent opencell housing. Because the first mirror layer and the second mirror layer repeatedly mutually reflect light rays from the at least one light source to the light admitting face to form a light-ring, it is not necessary to install an additional light guide ring in the rim of the housing. Therefore, the lamp structure is simple and inexpensive.
The material for the housing can be obtained from transparent glass, transparent plastics (acrylic or the like), or any other equivalent transparent materials. The higher transparency would result in the more efficient light-ring, The first and second surfaces of the transparent housing can respectively be a free form surfaces, spherical surfaces, oval surfaces, parabolic surfaces, etc. The predetermined wall thickness of the housing can be made having a uniform thickness or unequal thickness subject to actual design required.
The first and second mirror layers can be formed of a metal coating such as chrome, aluminum, mercury, etc., by means of electroplating, vacuum coating, spray coating, or any other equivalent coating procedure.
The at least one first light source can be designed having different colors or different intensity of light. A driving mechanism may be applied to move the at least one first light source in and out of the respective lamp socket. When the at lest one first light source extended out of the respective lamp socket, the first mirror layer reflects light rays from the at least one first light source directly toward the outside of the housing for illumination. When the at least one light source received inside the respective lamp socket, the first mirror layer and the second mirror layer mutually reflect light rays of the at least one first light source toward the light admitting face, producing alight-ring. The driving mechanism can be a gear and rack transmission mechanism, a solenoid, an air cylinder, a hydraulic cylinder, and any suitable mechanism capable of reciprocating the at least one first light source.
The light admitting face can be a polished face, or frosted, colored, patterned face, or partitioned into several concentric rings, or any other predetermined design.
Other objects, advantages, and novel features of the invention will become more apparent from the following detailed description when taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.